It has now been 30 years since the Hubble Space Telescope’s Launch! That means that Hubble has been providing the most amazing images from Space for 3 decades! That’s longer than I’ve been living!

Hubble is one of four (now 2) Great Observatories issued by NASA, and was designed to be used mostly in the visible light spectrum, with infra-red and UV light detectors on board as well.

Each anniversary, time is dedicated towards taking a really spectacular image using Hubble, and I think this year’s image is by far one of the best!

Meet NGC 2014 and 2020!

NGC 2020 is a blue round nebula that resembles a planetary nebula. The star that created this nebula is quite possibly a gigantic Wolf-Rayet Star. These stars are far more massive and luminous than our Sun, and so lose mass and die very quickly. The blue comes from the oxygen in the nebula.

NGC 2014, is a ginormous red emission nebula that contains a young open cluster within it. The bubbly structures within the nebula may have been caused by strong stellar winds blowing away dust and gas. This nebula has been nicknamed the Brain Coral.

Surprisingly, both of these structures are neighbours, and are snuggled together in the Large Magellanic Cloud!

Happy 30th birthday Hubble! Thank you for all your work!

What did Hubble take an image of on YOUR birthday?

Well have a look for yourself!